F RIC	Friedrich (age 12+) by Hans Peter Richter bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Catalog: A young German boy recounts the fate of his best friend, a Jew, during the Nazi regime.
F SER	Escape from Warsaw (age 12+) by Ian Serraillier bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: In 1942 Warsaw, World War II is raging, and people live in fear from day to day. Ruth, Bronia, and Edek have to fend for themselves when both of their parents are taken by the Nazis. Can they survive? A gripping story based on true accounts.
F PRE	Malka (age 12+) by Mirjam Pressler adventure ... bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: When the round-ups start in the Polish village, Malka's mother knows she must get her daughters across the Hungarian border to safety-a place where Jews can live in peace. But escape proves harder than they could have ever imagined. Raw and bleeding feet, bad weather, fear and homesickness fill their nights, until little Malka falls very ill, and must be left behind to be brought across when the threat has passed. But the threat doesn't pass. Separated from her family, Malka finds herself in a terrifying world full of strangers, starvation, and constant fear of Nazi round-ups. Completely alone, she struggles to stay hidden in alleyways and old cellars, unaware that miles away, a broken-hearted mother is searching frantically for her lost little girl . . . A shocking and unforgettable story of a child's heroic fight to stay alive during one of the most intense moments in human history.
F ORL	The Lady with the Hat (age 12+) by Uri Orlev bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical ... family Publisher comments: Yulek, a seventeen-year-old Holocaust survivor, finds himself tragically alone at war's end. Hoping to begin again, he makes his way to Palestine, where he meets a sad and beautiful Jewish girl named Theresa. Saved from the Nazis by Catholic nuns, Theresa, like Yulek, is uncertain about her place in the postwar world. Together they struggle to rediscover the joy of living. Meanwhile, a mysterious English woman sets out on her own search for the long-lost nephew that she has spotted in a newspaper photo of Jewish refugees. Perhaps by finding him, she will also find some long-hidden part of herself.
F MAT	After the War (age 12+) by Carol Matas bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: After World War II, Ruth, a 15-year-old survivor of Buchenwald has nowhere to turn. Recruited by Brichah, an underground organization that helps people get to Palestine, Ruth risks her life to lead a group of children there, using secret routes and forged documents.
F LEV	Room in the Heart (age 12+) by Sonia Levitin bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Catalog: After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.
F KOS	The Thought of High Windows (age 12+) by Lynne Kositsky bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical ... growing up Publisher comments: Young, Jewish and on the run from the Nazis, Esther is one of a group of children who manage to flee Germany at the beginning of World War II. But as the war rages on and Esther bears witness to its horrors, her pain and isolation grow, until only the highest windows bring the promise of release.
F ISA	Torn Thread (age 12+) by Anne Isaacs bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: Twelve-year-old Eva and her sister have been forced to leave their home in Poland and are imprisoned in a Nazi labor camp. There they must spin thread on treacherous machinery to make clothing and blankets for the German Army. As Eva struggles amid ever worsening dangers to save her life and that of her sick sister, readers witness how two teenagers strive to create home and family amidst inhumanity and chaos. Written in exquisite prose, this story of heartbreak and hope that is rich in detail and symbolism will deeply move readers of all ages.
F GRE	Summer of My German Soldier (age 12+) by Bette Greene bigotry ... war ... historical Publisher comments: When her small Arkansas hometown becomes the site of a prison camp during WW II, 12-year-old Patty risks losing her family by dating a German soldier who has escaped in a moving tale about young love.
F GRA	Resistance (age 12+) by Janet Graber bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Catalog: In German-occupied Normandy, France, fifteen-year-old Marianne worries that her mother is exposing the family, especially Marianne's deaf younger brother, to great danger by volunteering for more perilous assignments in the resistance movement.
F FRI	Escaping Into the Night (age 12+) by Dina D. Friedman bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: Halina Rudowski is on the run. When the Polish ghetto where she lives is evacuated, she narrowly escapes, but her mother is not as lucky. Along with her friend Batya, Halina makes her way to a secret encampment in the woods where Jews survive by living underground. As the group struggles for food, handles infighting, and attempts to protect themselves from the advancing Germans, Halina must face the reality of life without her mother. Based on historical events, this gripping tale sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the underground forest encampments that saved several thousand Jews from the Nazis.
F CHO	Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi (age 12+) by David Chotjewitz bigotry ... identity ... friendship ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: All his life, Daniel has been hiding. He just doesn't know it. Until the spring of 1933, he's enjoyed a comfortable German boyhood with his well-to-do family, in school, at soccer. Daniel's even enjoyed jail...for one exciting night...with his best friend, Armin, after they've been caught painting a swastika on a wall in the hated Communist section of Hamburg. In their cell, the boys cut their wrists, mingle blood, and swear lasting brotherhood. Then, a thunderclap: Daniel learns to his horror that his mother is Jewish, that he is therefore half-Jewish and, in Aryan eyes, half-human. Daniel keeps the truth a secret. He and Armin still talk of joining the Hitler Youth. But Armin's father, an out-of-work longshoreman and a Socialist, forbids it. Armin joins anyway, with fateful consequences for Daniel's family. Throughout World War II, and until the story's haunting final scene, each friend holds the life of the other in his hands.
F HOF	Incantation (age 12+) by Alice Hoffman family ... bigotry ... historical ... identity Publisher comments: Estrella is a Marrano: During the time of the Spanish Inquisition, she is one of a community of Spanish Jews living double lives as Catholics. And she is living in a house of secrets, raised by a family who practices underground the ancient and mysterious way of wisdom known as kabbalah. When Estrella discovers her family's true identity--and her family's secrets are made public--she confronts a world she's never imagined, where new love burns and where friendship ends in flame and ash, where trust is all but vanquished and betrayal has tragic and bitter consequences. Infused with the rich context of history and faith, in her most profoundly moving work to date, Alice Hoffman's first historical novel is a transcendent journey of discovery and loss, rebirth and remembrance.
F SCH	Trouble (age 12+) by Gary Schmidt bigotry ... growing up ... family ... illness/loss Publisher comments: Henry Smith's father told him that if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you. But Trouble comes careening down the road one night in the form of a pickup truck that strikes Henry's older brother, Franklin. In the truck is Chay Chouan, a young Cambodian from Franklin's preparatory school, and the accident sparks racial tensions in the school, and in the well-established town where Henry's family has lived for generations. Caught between anger and grief, Henry sets out to do the only thing he can think of: climb Mt. Katahdin, the highest mountain in Maine, which he and Franklin were going to climb together. Along with Black Dog, whom Henry has rescued from drowning, and a friend, Henry leaves without his parents' knowledge. The journey, both exhilarating and dangerous, turns into an odyssey of discovery about himself, his older sister, Louisa, his ancestry, and why one can never escape from Trouble.
F WAT	Down Sand Mountain (age 12+) by Steve Watkins historical ... bigotry ... growing up ... friendship Publisher comments: In a tale full of humor and poignancy, a sheltered twelve-year-old boy comes of age in a small Florida mining town amid the changing mores of the 1960s. It's 1966 and Dewey Turner is determined to start the school year right. No more being the brunt of every joke. No more Deweyitis. But after he stains his face with shoe polish trying to mimic the popular Shoeshine Boy at the minstrel show, he begins seventh grade on an even lower rung, earning the nickname Sambo and being barred from the whites only bathroom. The only person willing to talk to him, besides his older brother, Wayne, is fellow outsider Darla Turkel, who wears her hair like Shirley Temple and sings and dances like her, too. Through their friendship, Dewey gains awareness of issues bigger than himself and bigger than his small town of Sand Mountain: issues like race and segregation, the reality of the Vietnam War, abuse, sexuality, and even death and grieving. Written in a riveting, authentic voice, at times light-hearted and humorous and at others devastating and lonely, this deeply affecting story will stay with readers long after the book is closed.
F KON	The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World (age 12+) by E. L. Konigsburg bigotry ... friendship ... historical Publisher comments: "Ninety percent of who you are is invisible." Amedeo Kaplan seems just like any other new kid who has moved into the town of St. Malo, Florida, a navy town where new faces are the norm. But Amedeo has a secret, a dream: More than anything in the world, he wants to discover something...a place, a process, even a fossil...some treasure that no one realizes is there until he finds it. And he would also like to discover a true friend to share these things with. William Wilcox seems like an unlikely candidate for friendship: an aloof boy who is all edges and who owns silence the way other people own words. When Amedeo and William find themselves working together on a house sale for Amedeo's eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Zender, Amedeo has an inkling that both his wishes may come true. For Mrs. Zender's mansion is crammed with memorabilia of her long life, and there is a story to go with every piece. Soon the boys find themselves caught up in one particular story...a story that links a sketch, a young boy's life, an old man's reminiscence, and a painful secret dating back to the outrages of Nazi Germany. It's a story that will take them to the edge of what they know about heroism and the mystery of the human heart.
F FOR	Sound the Jubilee (age 12+) by Sandra Forrester bigotry ... historical A slave and her family find refuge on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, during the Civil War.
F JOR	The Raging Quiet (age 12+) by Sherryl Jordan friendship ... bigotry ... identity Widowed just two days after her marriage, Marnie finds herself an outsider in the remote seaside village of Torcurra. Spurned by the townsfolk who suspect her involvement in her husband's death, she has only two friends: the local priest and the madman known as Raver, even more of an outcast than Marnie herself. Marnie makes a remarkable discovers about Raver, whom she renames Raven, and the two forge a deep bond that begins to heal her own bruised heart. But the suspicious villagers see Raven's transformation as evidence of witchcraft, and suddenly Marnie finds herself facing an ordeal that threatens not only her future with Raven, but her very life.

Sat Aug 25 11:55:25 2012 Other themes and genres